Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation

Stephen B. Oates' Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation is written in a very scholarly and historical way. It is written in a scholarly way because it is written in such a way that it is informative and when it is read it might seem as if it belongs in a history book. Oates gives the reader a historical view point of Abraham Lincoln. His article is very comprehensive. It starts out explaining how Lincoln was in real life compared to how he was portrayed in legends. He describes Lincoln as a self made man, he states Lincoln's views on slavery and how he came to this conclusion. He covers the Kansas - Nebraska Act, the election of 1860, and the Civil War. Oates stays on topic throughout the article by covering Lincoln's life from his early political career to the end of the Civil War.

The thesis statement is "Only by viewing Lincoln scrupulously in the context of his own time can one understand the painful, ironic, and troubled journey that led him to the Emancipation Proclamation and to the thirteenth amendment that made it permanent" (Oates pg 324). This can be considered the thesis statement because the article is all about Lincoln's life from early politics to the Civil War and how it revolved around slavery. Oates divides the article into eight different parts, each part outlining a different part of the former President's life and how his beliefs about slavery influenced him. The first section is about the legends of Lincoln, and how they are partly true and partly false. This section can be summed up with the following quote."The real Lincoln was not a saintly emancipator, and he was not an unswerving racist either"(pg 324). The quote sums it up because in the section, Oates gives the reader two different legends. One is about him as a saintly rail splitter, and the other is about him as a bigot and a white racist. The quote shows the reader that for the most part he was nothing like how he is described in the legends. The second portion shows the reader that he was a man of many sides. He was a self man made, a self taught educator, and a great orator. The third segment provides the reader with Lincoln's views on slavery, and how he got these views. It tells the reader that he entered politics with the belief that slavery was wrong and that in order to stay in office he had to change his views and he did. However, after witnessing some of the evils of slavery first hand he decided to go back to his original principle that slavery was wrong. The fourth part provides insight into the Kansas - Nebraska Act and how it influenced him to join the Republican Party and fight against slavery. The fifth section is about the Civil War, and it gives insight into Lincoln's reason for the war. It states that he started the war in order to save the union, however after letters from abolitionists, and Fredrick Douglas he was persuaded that slavery could be ended in this war also. This prompted